If the guy wasn't already talented enough, now Brad Pitt is showing off his ability to shoot photos of his gorgeous "wife" and family using black and white film. The photos are quite spectacular and give us all an interesting insight into his life behind closed doors. You will want to see these.

The photos originally went public in the November 2008 issue of W Magazine. Surprisingly though I had not see them till they recently surfaced again on Reddit. According to Lomography.com "W’s Creative Director Dennis Freedman wanted a different perspective for their next feature of Angelina Jolie, revealing an angle yet unseen of one of the most photographed women in the world. The answer couldn’t have been more obvious and ambitious. “I was surprised that Brad accepted the challenge,” said Freedman as Brad Pitt showed interest and enthusiasm in shooting the portraits himself."

To produce the photos for the assignment from W Magazine, Pitt requested rolls of Kodak Tech Pan - a film that had been discontinued back in 2004. The magazine's photo editor however located 40 rolls of the film to send to Pitt to use as requested. Tech Pan was popular with photographers in the fashion industry for it's high contrast black and white results.

While looking over the images I was highly impressed with Pitt's ability to capture images that went far beyond just snapshots around the house. The lighting is beautiful in many of the shots and the composition is fantastic. His subject is of course absolutely stunning and those lips, wow! But who knew that Pitt had such a great eye for capturing photos.

Surprisingly, I also really enjoyed all the grain in the images. I realize this will be something some might complain about in the images, but I actually really found it almost refreshing and reminded me of my days shooting high ISO black and white film in school.

I was glad these images have resurfaced since I missed them on the first go around back in 2008. So what do you think about them? I for one am a bit perturbed that here all this time I thought I had Pitt beat in at least one area (photography) and come to find out now that he is actually quite the contender to beat me there as well. You got my respect Pitt. Now I just need to make sure my wife doesn't see these photos.

Trevor Dayley (www.trevordayley.com) was named as one of the Top 100 Wedding Photographers in the US in 2014 by Brandsmash. His award-winning wedding photos have been published in numerous places including Grace Ormonde. He and his wife have been married for 15 years and together they have six kids.

74 Comments

And why would it have been more impressive with another camera... the camera is JUST a fucking tool. Like the film, and the post process in the dark room, etc... a tool to explain what HE can see of his wife.

Yes they would be just as amazing if it was your wife in them. don't hate because you can't take pciture THAT good of your wife.

That's like saying someone who works the sidelines on an NFL team as a water boy should be as fast and powerful as an even the average player on the roster because they are around them all season?! You are kidding right?

All I know is if I took these (or any non celebrity photographer for that matter) I'd be blasted for too much grain, too much contrast (too much like the photos I took in college).....and I'm not impressed with the composition on most of them. The camera he used isn't important as any film camera could have gotten these shots, and any digital camera with the right post work. And like some said, "It's hard not to take an interesting shot of Angelina."

These are cool shots, but off course, An interesting subject makes for an interesting image, access to a unique model is also necessary to capture unique situations of an already hard to find and unique person (being the husband I'd say he had good access), also the trust of the model to the photographer makes a difference, these circumstances would make any decent photographer with some unique images IMO, I like them dough, I like Jolie too :-)

They're not super impressive but to start with, he doesn't call himself a photographer, he likely only has a working knowledge of photography but combine that with the fact that she's being photographed not by a stranger, but by someone who actually has a close relationship with her, the very nature of the photos should present a different side of her (in theory). That being said, some of them are what I would consider throw away photos, however I do think that a couple of them are cool because they challenge the conventions of photography and in that way they become "art(istic)". On the whole, I dig them.

different people have different perceptions in how they see photography. Please learn how to respect and judge it constructively. Overall, i think this is a very good series especially the expressions.

Totally agreed. I'd like to say this to some of the commenters here: If grain and contrast bother you and yet you don't see the beauty of A.J.'s expressions, I somehow feel you've lost being passionate about photography.

"how many of us turned in something this good as our first assignment?"

Plenty, and they turned in MUCH better.

Too bad people actually fall for the PR these two put out about themselves. Saving the world and being "beautiful" must be so tiring...

btw, why am I not surprised to see this showing up on Fstoppers?

"If the guy wasn’t already talented enough, now Brad Pitt is showing off his ability to shoot photos of his gorgeous “wife” and family using black and white film."... AND using black and white film, WHAT A GUY. Who writes this drivel anyways, I'm betting they "Like" Pitt on FB too...

First you need to develop the ability to tell the difference between "good" photography and "Pitt's" photography.

If you truly are unable to tell this difference (and there are more than enough good photographers to compare) then perhaps you should take a course or two at your local college.

Take away Pitt's name from these pics, and all that's left is mediocre, generic black and white shots that wouldn't be given a second look.

The cult of "street photography" is saturated with this kind of stuff, take a bunch of pictures and pick out the "edgy" ones to proclaim your "vision". The trouble is, thousands of others have the same shots as you have, all without anything other than blind luck as to the result.

Yes the old guard of shooting street, Atget, Cartier-Bresson, Frank or even Maisel started the genre of this type of shooting (they actually are simple street style portraits) but unfortunately, Pitt exhibits no actual talent in comparison, and is simply using his and her name to attract "devoted admirers" of all they touch.

I like the pics. He did a good job catching the natural light. But i would love to be a superfamous person too for a while, just for beeing photographed by the best photographers in the world, and having the chance to study how they work.